How old should a ferret be before I can give her just food without mixing it with water?

Question

The pet store told me to mix the food with water and smash it up into a mush basically and they said after she was old I wouldn't have to do that. She is about 5 months old now. How long should I wait before switching to just dry food?

Answer 1

I agree a 5 month old ferret should already be eating dry food. I would slowly dry out the consistency of the food until you are feeding it completely dry food.  

Answer 2

She can eat dry now. They only reccomend to do it until 12 weeks (3 months) The reason why they want you to do this is because if they eat dry is can cause them to strain too much which can lead to a prolapsed r****m.  

Answer 3

my baby can eat it without water

Answer 4

lol, they have no clue what they're talking about. like puppies and kittens, only young babies weaning over to solid food need that done. and no ferret young enough to need that done should be getting sold to an owner. at 5 months, she's certainly old enough now to just eat solid food. go ahead and start withdrawing some of the water you put in there until it's just dry food, slowly switching her over in the course of a week or so. it shouldn't take long before she eats it as it is.

if however, she absolutely refuses to eat, then add more water to it again. a ferret's high metabolism dictates it eat at least every four hours, and you absolutely cannot "wait out" a ferret to get it to eat what you want.

Answer 5

Mine were eating solid food at 8 weeks...your pet store employees are ridiculous. She should definately be eating dry, solid food at her age.